Benjamin Wachs: Change world, obey the laws

Saturday

Jul 26, 2014 at 11:49 AMJul 26, 2014 at 11:49 AM

By Benjamin Wachs

America fought a revolution over who gets to make the laws. It was resolved by deciding that it is the people’s representatives, and only the people’s representatives. Anything else is injustice masquerading as government.This is the principle behind New York state’s legal actions against the “ride-sharing” service Lyft, just as it is California’s actions against the “ride-sharing” service Uber, and many other cases.The tech companies, bolstered by talk of a “sharing economy” in which sharing somehow involves exchanging goods and services for money (take that, Sesame Street), argue that their business models are ultimately just too innovative to be bound by our laws.This, of course, is exactly the case that Wall Street makes when it crashes the economy. The fact that we’ve let Wall Street executives get away with it doesn’t mean we should let everybody — it means we should put more business leaders who violate the public trust in jail.Uber and Lyft aren’t really about “innovation” anymore than banks that foreclose on homes they don’t own are about “efficiency.” The “car sharing” technology is great — I have an app on my phone that works just as well as Uber and Lyft but is created by a company that obeys all local, state, and federal laws. The actual innovation doesn’t require a single broken law.Where did the notion come from that an idea shouldn’t have to follow the laws established by representative government if it’s new enough? I think what we’re seeing here is a more fundamental force at work: the stupidity of youth.Revolutionary parties and ideals appeal most to the young because they have the least experience with the law of unintended consequences. Because they haven’t seen just how difficult it actually is to change things for the better or how hard we’ve had to work or how much blood and tears and treasure we’ve had to expend just to get the civil society we have. It all seems so simple when you’re young.Today’s Silicon Valley is a cult of youth. Mark Zuckerberg has actually said only young people should be hired at tech companies, and age discrimination lawsuits are popping up everywhere. What actual data we have suggests that tech companies run by older workers are just as productive as their youthful counterparts — but facts don’t matter very much to cults.The remarkable thing about the billion-dollar kiddy businesses, of course, is that their bright-eyed teams of wet-behind-the-engineers have, in fact, developed technologies that are changing the world. That’s a lot more than I ever did at their age.But they have also surrounded themselves with teams of other young people who have big dreams about changing society and no actual experience with social change. Of course, they’re going to think that all the world needs are a few simple adjustments made by a few really smart kids and everything will be fine.And of course they won’t listen to the wisdom of ages. If it was so wise, wouldn’t it be working at a tech company?In a free society they are free to think that way. But while youthful stupidity may be a great excuse for a band, it does not trump representative government.Benjamin Wachs archives his work at www.TheWachsGallery.com. Email him at Benjamin@Fiction365.com